Sarah Massecar is a Toronto artist. A recent graduate from the University of Victoria (MFA), her work has been shown across Canada and in the United States at Forest City Gallery, London ON; Western Front, Vancouver; and Soil Art Gallery, Seattle.

Pulling apart ready-made objects, images and modes of production, the artists in Heyday reveal through deconstruction. Using the methods of decoupage and assemblage, the works in the exhibition share concerns regarding manufacture, currency and coining new languages. Peter Freitag works with extant imagery from European resort brochures. Removing all props from the images, Freitag creates populated vignettes in which the staging of a hotel room or the contrived position of a model are eerily foregrounded. Kristi Malakoff creates exquisitely delicate scenes from paper money. For example, she has reconfigured an idyllic three-dimensional cabin from a $100 bill and created a bird series from $2, $5, $10 and $20 bills. Malakoff’s detailed miniatures shift the currency of money, highlighting the idealized images sanctioned to describe nationhood and history. Sarah Massecar deconstructs and reassembles objects, focusing on the labour in re/making. Massecar has investigated the de/reconstruction of a wallet as well as texts that centre on themes of labour and DIY such as Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pecuchet. The dismantling carried out by these three artists potentially reflects the dismantling of a once-thriving capitalist society. After a heyday or period of greatest success or power there is an inevitable decline. Through their processual and conceptual operations, Freitag, Malakoff and Massecar question the present moment and capital’s shifting role.

Canadian Art Gallery Hop: Hosted by the Canadian Art Foundation and sponsored by the Consul General of the United States.

Friday, April 21st, 2006

Join fellow art lovers and scenemakers at the annual Gallery Hop kickoff in an original environment created by artists Hadley + Maxwell. “Art and Language” is this year’s theme and ticket sales benefit Artspeak, one of Vancouver’s most influential artist-run centres as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Saturday, April 22nd, 2006: Free Gallery Talks

Spend the afternoon sampling some of Vancouver’s best galleries. Canadian Art will have the experts on hand across the city to introduce the work on view. Pick up your Hop schedule and map in the Saturday, April 22, edition of the Globe and Mail. Free admission.

Please join us at Artspeak for the first of the free gallery talks at 1:30 pm. Rachel Sawatsky explores the politics of self-regulation and pleasure in the works of Peter Freitag, Kristi Malakoff, and Sarah Massecar.

Artspeak is pleased to present Peter Freitag’s artist talk discussing Heyday; a group exhibition featuring the work of Freitag, Krist Malakoff and Sarah Massecar. Heyday runs from April 1st to May 6th, 2006 at Artspeak.